Five pin trends for summer

Once the favored accessory of '80s school kids and hardcore collectors, the last year or so has seen a resurgence of enamel pins — part of the wider customized clothing trend — with a new wave of designers getting on the badge bandwagon. But if you're going to puncture your favorite denim or leather jacket with one, you want to make sure the sacrifice was absolutely worth it. With that in mind, these are the five biggest, can't-go-wrong trends in the pin game right now…

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Bootleg The Simpsons

You'd have to have the eyesight of Hans Moleman to miss the fact that, in the pin game, The Simpsons is everywhere. From straight iconography ripped direct from the world's favorite cartoon to Homer, Marge, Bart and the rest reimagined like you never thought possible, bootleg Simpsons has spread faster than an Australian bullfrog epidemic. "In making my pins, I imagine what Simpsons characters would look like if they liked the things I liked and vice versa," says Daniel Perez, aka @AllMySimpsonsStuff, the guy behind this rad little Bart-meets-Kendrick Lamar treasure. Stick this on your lapel and know everything's gon' be alright.

Picture: Instagram.com/AllMySimpsonsStuff

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Pepperoni pizza

You like pizza. We like pizza. We all like pizza. But not quite as much as the countless guys and girls that make it their artistic mission to slap it all over your denim jacket. @Wormcarnevale, a Brooklyn-based artist, has created without doubt the coolest "pizza pack" we've seen, slicing one whole pie into six so that you can give the gift of pepperoni to your nearest and dearest too. "I'm a self-proclaimed pizzatarian. If someone ever tells you that you're eating too much pizza, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life," he tells us.

Picture: Instagram.com/Wormcarnevale

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Celebrity faces

Love Parks And Recreation? Good. Then you're likely as in awe of Nick Offerman's super-macho, hilariously deadpan and majestically mustachioed character Ron Swanson as we are. We'd happily carry his face on our chest all day and, thanks to @TheMidnightSociety,just one of the many face-taking pin makers out there, we can. "I've always been a fan of pop culture and have collected pins since I was young," says Chris Morris, one half of the South Carolina boyfriend-girlfriend design team behind this, and other faces such as Game Of Thrones' Jon Snow, Django Unchained's Django and Zoolander's Mugatu. In the words of the deranged fashion mogul, these are "so hot right now."

Picture: Instagram.com/TheMidnightSociety

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Flash skulls

It's no surprise that a fellow art-stabbed-into-your-body subculture has had a major hand in the explosion of the pin trend over the last 18 months. There are tattoo-inspired pins by the boatload out there, not least more skulls than you can shake a bony finger at. Butch X, or @Butchovision,from Houma in Louisiana, is just one of the creatives that are all about skulls. "I started my art career about 12 years ago. My items have evolved over the years from art paintings to prints, buttons, stickers, lapel pins, shirts and now my own toy line."

Picture: Instagram.com/Butchovision

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Unmotivational messages

Tapping into the stereotypically grumpy vibes of our teenage years, these pretty unhelpful messages are rife. @Pin_lord, who informs us he's had "designs worn by the likes of (R&B hero) Miguel, (emo champion) Frank Iero and (blogger) Luanna90" sums the trend up, er, nicely with his sweet little pin, made in collaboration with illustrator Paige Vickers. Hey, it's meant in the nicest possible way, we're sure.